Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1887-07-05

know and feel, that in every act they WI,
be held personally responsible TO the
people among whom they act. The
great outrage of this form of govern
ment which congress stuGbornly persists
in imposing upon this people lies in the
fact that it is q Government not respon.
sible to the people, sesF
10 The people OF Dakota are paving
annually on millions OF dollars OF Dor
roWed capital from twelve to twenty ne,
cent interest, Ii they were entrusted
with their Government, and wert
admitted with the rights which belong
to them into the Union, this Interest
would come down to a leYel with the in.
terest paid by the people of Minnesota
and Iowa.
Ii the borrowed money in Dakota
amounts to the moderate sum of twenty
million of dollars annually, and The ex-
cess OF interest which her people paw bt
cause they live in a territory over tina,
which they would have to pay If they
lived IN q State is five per cent, which
is quite an underestimate, the people oil
Dakota as you will see by a simple cal
eulatlon, pay annually not | IS than the
sum OF one million dollars for the privi,
legs OF being governed by Congress, IN
stead OF being governed. by themselves.
IL The very fact of Congress keeping
. people OF six hundred thousand wrong.
fully under q colonial Government, in
violation of the spirit and letter OF the
Constitution and of the charter OF the
Ordinance OF 1887 has an immoral and
degrading influence. Il is educating
people to endure a wrong, an education
which congress has no right to bestow
upon them.
IL And lastly the perpetuation OF a
Colonial form Of Government over snch
q people is 3 tritling with the most
sacred rights and liberties of American
citizens, and a violation of the most sac
red guarantees OF the Constitution and
a trampling upon the very spirit and
essence OF our institutions which no
reason can Justify or excuse and which
is educating the American People them
selves in a most dangerous precedent,
that threatens the liberties OF each Stata
and of all the people.
'sEDITIoN."
l see going the rounds of the news.
papers, since a speech which I made at
the invitation of the Soldiers OF the
Grand Army at Huron, Dakota, in which
was u paragraph which grows logically
out OF the subject OF the day in which I
the fact that the Government
which the people OF Dakota now have is
neither q Government of the people nor
by the people nor for the
people q fact which every man
who is not q born fool knows-a para
graph purporting to emanate from some
one connected with the administration
as follows:
"Ibis administration has put up with
about as much sass from Dakota as il
intends to. What ought to be done
and what will be done if he don't look
out is to take that mon Campbell and
put him where the dogs wont bite him
he ought to be arrested for sedition at
and | have the means of knowing if
he don't quit his revolutionary
h%arangues, Governor Church will put
his grip upon him pretty soon, and will
do SO under the advice of the President
too.
"The whole matter has been talked
over fully and Church has his orders.
has always bsen making mis-
chief and it is time he was muzzled."
[ say to this beiiicose statesman that
| learned in early life, as one of the first
IN the ways OF this deceitful
world, that barking dogs don't bite.
l don't know what authority the
author OF this nice piece of eomplimens
tary rhetoric has for his statements.
Nor do L. care, for it is of equal su.
whether it comes from the presj.
deL or his underling.
But / do care that a threat against the
Right of Free Speech, should be uttered
by any man; high Or low, against any
other man high or low.
Whoever strikes q blow at your Right
of Free Speech, strikes a blow OF mine.
Whoever strikes a blow at mine, strikes
q blow at yours.
1t is unimportant who does it. The
important thing ia, that any man can be
found in this Country who DARES to
threaten Free Speech in any man.
supposed, at first, that such an idea
was too silly, e to be credited to this
Administration.
But we cannot always tell what an
Administration may do.
We cannot always tell, beie rehand,
how the exercise OF O little brief authori-
ty, may effect lei
1t may be barely possible that some
such scrazy notion has tioated through
the shallow head of some inflated office
holding patriot who wants to make him
self solid with the powers that be,
"~sEpITIoN!"
] believe I do remember that there was
a party once that passed q "Seditlon'
law.
But the law did not last long,
Itdied young.
Neither did the party that passed it.
I have not heard OF any "Seditlon'
/! e vs since, in the United States, nor has
anybody else.
The people of the United States kick
ed that "Sedltion" Law, and the party
that made it, both together, down stairs,
and neither OF them have got up since.
Possible there nav be some honest
people, who are uniformed enough to
believe, that 1t is q pleasant and ordin-
cry pastime for an Administration, when
il gets nervous, or tired, or wants q
change, to arrest men for Free Speech,
in this country.
And there may possibly be other
simple minded and honest men, who
might really be afraid, that in the utter'
apce of such sentiments as [ have
uttertd here, there is some vague, I'M
defined otfense against tie laws.
10 settle the matter, if there exists
anywhere in the United States an Office
holder, who has so firm a belief In the
Divine right'of Office holders to arrest
people, as to believe or imagine thai in
anything l say, even If done. there
could be any offenss against the laws,
or that there could be any punishment,
e!ther for the saying or the doing the
SINE, l now make this proposition to
ali whom it may concern or the Gov
ernor or the President, or any other